New Urban Solutions: Implementing The New Urban Agenda

1. JUSTIFICATION The current urban paradigm: the contribution of urbanization to sustainable development We are in a new global stage where most of the world population lives in urban areas, being proclaimed by some theorists as the Urban Millennium. At the beginning of the 20th century, 20% of the population lived in cities. Today, the number has more than doubled, exceeding 55%; and the predictions for the next 30 years suggest that the number will rise to 66% in 2050, that is, almost 7,000 million people.  The sum of the global growth of the population and the parallel growth of urban life sets out the need to review the urbanization model that is practiced today. Urbanization is more than a demographic phenomenon. Adverse effects of climate change, insecurity and crime, increased socioeconomic exclusion and inequality, uncontrolled urbanization caused by the growth of informal settlements and the inability to provide basic services, transportation, and employment in decent conditions, add up as urban challenges.  However, urbanization also presents opportunities. It is a transforming force that throughout modern history has been continuously remodelling societies, economies ... but for the moment, only in some cases it has generated the expected economic goods and social improvements. In other cases, where it has indeed been a great success as an accelerator of economic development, an unaffordable environmental cost is being paid. Today, up to 70% of total greenhouse gas emissions are attributed to cities.  What are the conditions that make urbanization become an accelerator of both economic and social prosperity? What is it that makes a city more successful than another in creating jobs, encouraging creativity and attracting a virtuous circle of social, economic and environmental improvement?  UN-Habitat focuses precisely on enquiring into the strategies that lead to an urbanization capable of generating prosperity for all, and into the policies that prevent an economically, socially and environmentally unstructured urbanization.  The capacity and potential of urbanization to generate economic and social growth, as well as prosperity processes, was recognized at the Summit for Sustainable Development, which took place in September 2015, where the Member States of the United Nations approved the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which includes 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, fight inequality and injustice and tackle climate change. In this new paradigm, the Sustainable Development Goal 11 - "Making cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable" recognizes for the first time sustainable urbanization as engine of development and prosperity for all.   United Nations Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development - Habitat III - and the New Urban Agenda  The process towards Habitat III culminated one of the most innovative and participatory processes in the history of the United Nations. In addition to the sessions of the Conference Preparatory Committee , the New Urban Agenda has been the result of a process that has involved the participation of more than 200,000 people in total, through Regional and Thematic Meetings , expert meetings around the Units of policy, which developed 22 base documents, National Urban Campaigns, Journalism Academies, digital dialogues, and other platforms, considered as contributions to the process. Habitat III hosted the participation and contribution of 30,000 participants representing 167 countries, among Member States, local and regional governments, agencies and programs of the United Nations system, and relevant stakeholders, including representatives of civil organizations, professionals and researchers , academics, foundations, women's and youth groups, unions, private sector, as well as intergovernmental organizations. Habitat III means the United Nations conference that brought together more representatives of local and regional governments (2,000). After the celebration of Habitat III, and the approval of the New Urban Agenda, the key period of its implementation has been opened. In this process, this Agenda must act as a roadmap for sustainable urban development for the next twenty years, and during its implementation, the involvement of the different actors, including especially national, regional and local governments, will be essential. The New Urban Agenda, aims to create a link of reciprocal reinforcement between urbanization and development, so that these two processes become parallel vehicles for sustainable development, and marks the guidelines on a series of "enablers" that help to consolidate this link - national urban policies, urban legislation, urban planning and design, urban financing and local implementation. In addition, it addresses thematic areas such as Social Cohesion and Equity, Liveable Cities, Urban Frameworks, Territorial Orientation, Urban Economy, Urban Ecology and Environment, Urban Housing and Basic Services, taking special consideration on:  • The role of sustainable urbanization as an engine of sustainable development. • Urban-rural linkages. • The relationship between social, economic and environmental dimensions of sustainable development to promote stable, prosperous and inclusive societies. In addition, the New Urban Agenda (NAU) is articulated in five key areas to support all stakeholders: • Urban Sustainable Development for social inclusion and end of poverty. Development must protect the planet and allow all inhabitants, whether they live in formal or informal settlements, to lead a decent, dignified and rewarding life and achieve their full human potential. • Sustainable and inclusive urban prosperity and opportunities for all. Inclusive and sustainable economic growth, with full and productive employment and decent work for all, is a key element of sustainable urban development in which people can live healthy, productive, prosperous and satisfying lives. • Environmental sustainability and resilient urban development. Unsustainable patterns of consumption and production, the loss of biodiversity, the pressure over the ecosystems, pollution, natural disasters caused by men, as well as climate change and its related risks, undermine the efforts to end with poverty and achieve a sustainable development. • To build the urban governance structure: to establish a support framework. The NUA is based on participative urban policies that incorporate urban and territorial sustainable development among the development strategies and integrated plans, supported by institutional and regulatory frameworks linked to transparent and responsible financial mechanisms.     • Planning and management of territorial urban development. A balanced territorial development, which considers all different cities scales and human rights, strengthens its role in the food safety and nutrition systems, places housing at the centre, builds infrastructure and services, facilitates commerce and connects agricultures and fishermen through value chains and markets.   Generation of empirical orientation and practice for sustainable urban development promotion and the implementation of the New Urban Agenda.  UN-Habitat, as the main UN agency responsible for the promotion of sustainable urban development, plays a key role in supporting governments and their partners to face the challenges and opportunities of new trends in urbanization. This is how UN-Habitat focuses its work on the promotion and adoption of better policies, plans and instruments to generate more compact, socially inclusive, better integrated and connected cities that promote sustainable urban development. In addition, it is the organism in the United Nations system that acts as the coordination centre for urbanization and sustainable human settlements, particularly in the implementation, monitoring and evaluation of the New Urban Agenda.  A New Urban Agenda that a) encourages UN-Habitat to generate empirical and practical guidance for its implementation and the urban dimension of the Sustainable Development Goals, in close collaboration with the Member States of the United Nations, local authorities, main groups and other relevant stakeholders, as well as through the mobilization of experts; and b) urges UN-Habitat to continue its work of enriching normative knowledge and providing capacity development and tools for the design, planning and management of sustainable urban development. In its Strategic Plan 2014 -2019 , and in its biannual 2018-2019 Work Plan, UN-Habitat recognizes that through generation, capture and exchange of knowledge, it is positioned as the leading institution in sustainable urbanization and that the success of its programs depends on a large extent on how it generates, manages and uses its knowledge. In this sense, it is trying to reach new levels of excellence in strategic learning and in the generation, management and exchange of knowledge in a combined, shared, effective and systematically applied way. In this scenario, has identified the need of widening its relations with strategic partners, to strengthen its role and participation in: (i) The promotion, generation and exchange of strategic learning and knowledge in the framework of the implementation of the New Urban Agenda;  (ii) The incidence, awareness and strengthening of mobilization efforts in the process of local implementation of the New Urban Agenda.  (iii) Effective technical support and the strengthening of alliances and cities and institutions networks.